Closing of Borders opens downtown fears

Saratoga Springs store's prominence would make vacancy glaring, but there's optimism for rebound

By Chris Churchill Business writer

Updated 10:17 am, Thursday, February 17, 2011

Photo: Cindy Schultz

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David Maynard of Ballston Spa enters the Saratoga Springs Borders store on Wednesday. The Broadway store's pending closing will leave a tremendous hole in downtown, city boosters fear. Guilderland and Clifton Park sites are not on the company's closing list. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

David Maynard of Ballston Spa enters the Saratoga Springs Borders store on Wednesday. The Broadway store's pending closing will leave a tremendous hole in downtown, city boosters fear. Guilderland and Clifton ... more

Photo: Cindy Schultz

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Customers relax, talk and read inside the Saratoga Springs Borders -- which is scheduled to close at an undetermined date -- on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Customers relax, talk and read inside the Saratoga Springs Borders -- which is scheduled to close at an undetermined date -- on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Photo: Cindy Schultz

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The Borders on Broadway in Saratoga Springs will close at a date yet to be announced. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

The Borders on Broadway in Saratoga Springs will close at a date yet to be announced. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Photo: Cindy Schultz

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The Borders book store on Broadway, Saratoga Springs, will close because of the parent company's filing under Chapter 11. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

The Borders book store on Broadway, Saratoga Springs, will close because of the parent company's filing under Chapter 11. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Photo: Cindy Schultz

Closing of Borders opens downtown fears

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SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Downtown Saratoga Springs had seemed almost immune to the economic downturn; it's as vibrant and lively as ever, even as store closures hit shopping malls and strip centers.

But that changed Wednesday with the announcement that Borders, a prominent downtown anchor, would close its store at 395 Broadway in Saratoga Springs as the company reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Residents reacted to the shutdown -- a final closure date hasn't been announced -- with shock and sadness. Saratoga Springs has no other full-service bookstore, and Borders occupies the largest retail space on Broadway, the downtown strip.

"It's like a big hole right in the middle of the city," said David Maynard of Ballston Spa, who was shopping at the store. "It's really unfortunate."

Michigan-based Borders, seen as slow to adapt to Internet-based retailing, said it would shutter 200 of its 642 stores. Locations in Clifton Park and Guilderland were not on the closure list released Wednesday.

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Its 25,000-square-foot building will not be the only vacancy on Broadway, which on Wednesday sported about five empty storefronts among the dozens of stores.

That's a vacancy rate that would thrill boosters in other Capital Region downtowns. But in Saratoga Springs, where the vibrancy of the downtown is a matter of civic pride, the blank windows are a sign the down economy is finally hitting home.

Still, downtown business owners said an uptick in vacancies isn't that unusual in winter months after the holidays. In past years, they said, a wave of new businesses have arrived with the spring, in anticipation of summer tourism.

"There are a lot of people, a lot of people, looking to open stores in downtown Saratoga," said Mark Straus, owner of several buildings on Broadway.

Borders came to Saratoga Springs in 2000, with its newly constructed building replacing Pope's Pizza and Red Barn, a fast-food restaurant.

The store was part of a wave of expansion by large booksellers, including Barnes & Noble. But the rise of online retailing and e-books cut sales at many of those stores, including some in vibrant districts.

Tim Holmes, owner of Wheatfields restaurant, said Saratoga Springs deserves no blame for the store's failure.

"I think they had a business model that wasn't working for them," he said.

But residents described Borders as more than a store. They said it was a literary and community hub, where friends met and drank coffee.

"We feel for the people who love new books, because that was their downtown bookstore," said Janice Demarco, co-owner of Lyrical Ballad, a nearby store that sells mostly used and rare books. "It's going to leave a void."

Some business owners on Wednesday said they feared the two-story Borders space would be difficult to rent. The building is owned by Myron M. Hunt Inc., a Buffalo-area firm that did not return a request for comment.

A former Borders location on Wolf Road in Colonie provides no reason for optimism: The similarly sized building has been vacant since the chain left it in 2008.

But others noted that Saratoga, which had a moribund downtown in the 1980s, has a history of reinventing both itself and its storefronts.

"There are a lot of retailers still out there which could use that space," said Jeffrey Pfeil, a commercial real estate broker who helped lure national retailers to downtown Saratoga about a decade ago. "But it's a tough time to do retail deals."

Saratoga has changed significantly since Borders opened. Most notably, the city has experienced a wave of residential construction, most of it concentrated downtown.

That construction wave continues: Just a short distance from Borders, workers on Wednesday began initial construction on a six-story building that will include five floors of apartments above a new Price Chopper supermarket.

That project is by Bonacio Construction, which is planning another mixed-use building on a Broadway parking lot that is within view of Borders.

To some, those plans symbolize downtown Saratoga's continuing strength and its ability to bounce back -- even without Borders.

"It's a resilient business area," Holmes said. "One person's vacant shell is another person's business opportunity."